Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art

Exhibition dates: November 13, 2011–May
14, 2012

The Michael H. Dunn Gallery, second
floor

In December 1931, two
years after its founding, The Museum of Modern Art
inaugurated a major exhibition of work by the Mexican
artist Diego Rivera. Only the second retrospective
presented at the young Museum, the show was wildly
popular, breaking attendance records in its five-week
run. Rivera’s international celebrity was based on his
fame as a muralist, but murals—by definition made and
fixed on site—were impossible to transport. To solve
this problem, MoMA brought the artist to New York from
Mexico six weeks before the opening and provided him
with makeshift studio space in an empty gallery.
Working around the clock with three assistants, Rivera
produced five “portable murals”—freestanding frescoes
with bold images commemorating events in Mexican
history. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera
added three more murals, now taking on New York
subjects through monumental images of the urban
working class and the social stratification of the
city during the Great Depression. All eight were on
display for the rest of the show’s run.

The first of these
panels, Agrarian Leader
Zapata, is an icon in the Museum’s collection.
This exhibition reunites five of the murals Rivera
produced for this extraordinary commission, presenting
them at MoMA for the first time in nearly 80 years.
Along with mural panels, the show will include
full-scale drawings, smaller working drawings,
archival materials related to the commission and
production of these works, and designs for Rivera’s
famous Rockefeller Center mural, which he also
produced while working at the Museum. Focused
specifically on works created during the artist’s stay
in New York, this exhibition offers a fresh look at
the intersection of art making and radical politics in
the 1930s. Diego
Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art,
which will only be presented at MoMA, is accompanied
by a richly illustrated publication. It is organized
by Leah Dickerman, Curator, Painting and Sculpture,
The Museum of Modern Art.